Over 100 Detained Immigrants at Newly Opened California City ICE Detention Center Launch Collective Action to Demand End to Abuse and Neglect

For Immediate Release

September 18, 2025

Media Contacts: 

Alex Mensing, California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice, alex@ccijustice.org, 415-684-5463

Marcela Hernandez, Detention Watch Network, mhernandez@detentionwatchnetwork.org, 626-260-8003

Over 100 Detained Immigrants at Newly Opened California City ICE Detention Center Launch Collective Action to Demand End to Abuse and Neglect

Detained immigrants call on the CoreCivic and ICE to meet their demands 

California City, CA – Over 100 immigrants detained at the California City ICE Detention Center launched a collective action tonight to demand an end to the severe abuse and neglect they have faced since being transferred to the facility. As they initiated their action, which included sit-ins and refusal of meals across separate housing pods, local immigrant rights groups participated in a solidarity action near the facility, which they are live-streaming at the time of this release.

California City opened as an ICE detention center in late August, without necessary permits and in violation of state and local law, and despite vocal opposition. Since ICE first began transferring people to the facility on August 28th, 2025, they have experienced widespread neglect, abysmal conditions, and retaliation from facility staff.

Reports from people detained at California City highlight pervasive medical neglect and abuse, including: 

• Being denied access to daily medications 

• Unethical and unprofessional conduct from medical staff

• Multiple medical emergencies where individuals have lost consciousness  

• Nonfunctional toilets and sinks 

• Drinking water with unsafe levels of lead causing illness

• Dangerously unhygienic conditions, the lack of essential hygiene items such as changes of clothes, soap, and shampoo, and exorbitant prices to purchase these items

• Confinement to cells for the vast majority of each day

• Denial of contact visits with loved ones

• Denial of access to a law library or resources to fight their cases 

• Denial of the ability to pray.

“They clearly weren’t ready to detain us. This facility was not ready, medical staff were not ready, and that’s very concerning” Jonathan Montes, who began refusing meals tonight, explained. “People who came in with medication, or special needs like braces for medical conditions, even things like eyeglasses, they’re not getting them. And across staff–nurses, case managers, officers, lieutenants–and ICE, they’ve been threatening us. They’re locking us in our cells, preventing people from calling their families. They’re denying us contact visits with our family. This is why we feel that there’s something that should be done.”

Scores of people detained at California City report severe retaliation in response to their complaints. Individuals report punitive treatment, including being threatened with or sent to solitary confinement. They also report sexually abusive patdowns, a retaliation tactic ICE and other for-profit operators have used against labor and hunger strikers in the past.

Loba, who is also detained at California City, said, “Being locked up like we are here, it only makes us relive traumas that we have lived in the past. And it's very, very traumatizing to see a lot of my fellow podmates deteriorate from being in this environment. The staff here don't care if people have diabetes, if people have high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, they don't care if a person has heart problems or any mental health needs. When individuals like myself speak up to the staff or administration for our basic needs, they threaten us to take us to segregation or solitary confinement.” 

Alfredo Parada Calderon, who engaged in a sit-in, said, “I thought I had seen it all, all the detention centers, until they opened my eyes with the worst one ever: Cal City. I thought I was walking by myself until I knew that I had brothers with me to pick me up. And that’s where I had the strength to continue fighting for the people that are voiceless,” Mr. Parada Calderon was detained in two other ICE detention centers before being transferred to California City.

Detained immigrants collective and basic demands of CoreCivic, the for-profit prison company operating the facility under a multi-million dollar contract, and the San Francisco ICE Field Office are:

1. Medical. We have medical needs and records that prove it. Give us medical care.

2. Cease oppressive behavior. Stop threatening us with solitary confinement for requesting these basic necessities. Stop threatening us with retaliatory transfers for asserting our rights. Stop keeping us locked in our cells for the majority of the day. Let us have contact visits with our family. 

3. Legal resources and access. Let us access a law library. Let us make copies of documents for our cases free of charge. Give us pens. Allow us access to our mail and phone calls.

4. Hygiene and Health. Unclog our toilets. Give us drinkable water. Clean the prison or at least give us the proper supplies to do so. Properly handle our food, and give us nutritious food.  

5. Property. Give us back our property, including our books and religious items that were confiscated. 

Although California City is newly opened, these patterns of abuse and neglect are pervasive across the ICE detention system. Earlier this year, migrants at a Texas detention center formed the letters SOS in the facility's yard. In 2024, a federal civil rights complaint was filed against staff at the Golden State Annex ICE facility for sexual abuse. Multiple hunger and labor strikes have been led by people in ICE detention in previous years to protest such abuse.

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